Overview[]
Background[]
In high school, Rick and Shane Walsh were best friends. In those years, Rick was a very quiet person who lived in the shadow of his best friend. He had few girlfriends and most of them were Shane's ex girlfriends. After high school, Rick and Shane went to college together to become policemen. They graduated and became policemen at King County Sheriff's Department. During that time, Rick had met Lori at a young age and married her shortly. They gave birth to a son named Carl and lived a typical, but peaceful suburban life. Just prior to the the zombie outbreak, Rick had began to drift further and further away from Lori. Though he tried his best to talk to her, Rick had difficulty communicating with her.
Major Plots[]
Season 1[]
Before the outbreak occurs, Rick and his friend Shane are chasing a speeding convict. The chase ends in a shootout where Rick is dealt a serious wound. Rick lapses into a coma and wakes up in a hospital bed to a world changed by the zombie apocalypse. As he wanders through the city, he knocked out Duane Jones. Rick wakes up again to find out that he has been taken in by Morgan Jones, Duane's father. Morgan explains what has happened in Rick's absence. Afterward, Rick and Morgan go to the police station to arm themselves with weapons. Rick then heads to Atlanta, which Morgan had told him could be a safe place because of the CDC located there. Entering Atlanta, Rick finds out the hard way that Atlanta is anything but a safe place as it is filled with walkers. Rick soon finds himself trapped in a tank.
Rick is saved by group of survivors who lead him back to their group. It is there that he is reunited with his family again as well as his friend Shane. One night, when the group lets their guard down, they are attacked by a crowd of walkers. People die and the group is forced to move on. Rick decides that the group should head the CDC. At the CDC, Rick notices that there is someone still in there. After pleading, Rick and his group are allowed in. The group meets a scientist named Edwin Jenner who is working to find a cure. Finally, after much traveling, the group believes they have found a safe haven for themselves. However, their hopes are dashed when they learn that the CDC will self destruct when the power runs out. At the least second, the group is able to escape before the center explodes. From there, they continue traveling on the road.
Season 2[]
As Rick and his group come across a deserted traffic jam in the middle of a deserted highway. The group is forced to hide when a herd of walkers come strolling through. As the walkers pass through, two of them spots Sophia and chase her away. Rick follows them and dispatches the walkers. However, he loses Sophia in the process. The group decides to organize a search to find her. During the search, Carl is accidentally shot by a hunter. Immediately, the hunter takes Carl and Rick back to his home where a man named Hershel is a doctor. Hershel is able to patch up Carl. Afterward, Rick's group moves into Hershel's home while Carl recovers. Meanwhile, Rick learns about Lori's affair with Shane and that she is pregnant. This motivates Rick to try to persuade Hershel to allow his group to stay permanently.
Tensions between the two groups quickly rise when Glenn finds out that Hershel is hiding walkers in his barn. Shane, who is concerned for the group's safety, gathers up the group to shoot all the walkers in the barn, including a Sophia who had turned into a walker. Hershel is dismayed by the violence because those walkers were his family members. Hershel leaves the farm to drink at a bar. Rick and Glenn then go to the bar to bring him back. In the process, they get into a gunfight with another group. They escape, but are forced to bring along a prisoner. The group has a debate over whether to kill Randell the prisoner or not. Rick decides to execute Randell, but ultimately changes his mind when he sees Carl watching eagerly.
Shane, who is discontent with Rick's decision, takes the matter into his own hands and kills Randell in the woods. He then tells the group that Randell had escaped. Rick organizes a group to find Randell. Then he realizes that Shane had lied and was trying to lure Rick into a trap so he can kill him. The two have a stand off that ends with Rick killing Shane. The sounds of gunfire alert a nearby group of walkers that overrun the farm. Rick and his group along with Hershel and his family are forced to flee. However, Andrea is left behind. Finally away from the walkers, Rick declares that the group is no longer a democracy and seals his place as their leader.
Season 3[]
After a long winter, Rick and his group find a prison. They quickly clear out the walkers and make the place their home. Inside the prison, they find a group of surviving prisoners. A conflict arises between Rick's group and the inmates when one of them tries to kill Rick while Rick tries to find a place for them to stay. Rick kills one of the prisoners and chases another one away. That prisoner returns to reek vengeance by releasing walkers into the prison. During the attack, T-Dog and Lori die, but Rick and his group are able to kill the inmate who started the attack. Lori dies while giving birth to a girl named Judith. When Rick sees the baby with its mother, his mental stability falters as he mourns. While out on a run, Glenn and Maggie are captured by Merle, who takes them to a town named Woodbury.
Rick receives word of their capture from a woman named Michonne. He organizes a group and saves Glenn and Maggie while at the same time, bringing Merle back to their prison. When Rick returns to the prison, he has a mental breakdown when he begins seeing visions of Lori. These visions then incapacitates him from his duties as the leader. The Governor, who is angry that Michonne had killed his walker daughter during Rick's visit to Woodbury, retaliates by sending soldiers and walkers to attack the prison. This attack snaps Rick back to his senses. After the Governor leaves, the group prepares themselves for another attack. Andrea, who heard of the attack and is staying at Woodbury, tries to make peace between the two groups. She fails and the two sides move closer to war.
The Governor attacks the prison with his men, but they are repelled by the walkers inside. Then they are ambushed by Rick and his group, forcing them to retreat. As they leave, the Governor kills his men for losing the battle. Following the successful counterattack, Rick's group heads to Woodbury to invade the town. Inside the town, they find Andrea in a pool of blood after being bitten by a walker. She asks for Rick's gun and he lets her commit suicide. Rick gathers the rest of the townsfolk and convinces them to stay at the prison by telling them that the Governor had massacred their people for losing.
Season 4[]
Following the Governor's failed attempt to take the prison, Rick and his group attempt to start a quiet life in the prison. Then trouble arises when a strain of flu begins to spread throughout the prison. As the illness spread, people start dying and turning into walkers. Soon, Rick and Tyreese find the bodies of Karen and David burned after they had contracted the illness. Rick later learns that Carol had killed the Karen and David in order to stop the disease from spread. With this confession in mind, Rick takes Carol on their next supply run to get medicine to keep the infected people's fever down. It is during this trip that Rick leaves Carol on her own so Tyreese would never find out. When Rick returns to the prison, he finds that walkers are crowding against the fence. Calling Carl for help, he is able to put down all the walkers once they break down the fence. Meanwhile, Michonne, Daryl and the others arrive back from a supply run with the medicine to cure the illness. The illness is cured and prison life becomes more stable.
However that does not last long. The Governor returns with a new group to make another attempt to take the prison. The Governor demands the prison and shows Rick that he had taken Hershel and Michonne hostage. Rick offers to share the prison, but the Governor rejects the offer. He kills Hershel and a battle between the two groups ensues. During the battle, Rick fights the Governor in a brawl. The fight ends when Michonne stabbing the Governor. With the Governor dead, Rick tries to find his children. After finding Carl, he finds Judith's carriage soaked with blood. Mourning the loss of his child, he escapes the prison with Carl.
After walking a few miles from the prison, Rick and Carl take shelter in an abandoned house. They are later joined by Michonne who had tracked them down. Then while Michonne and Carl are on a supply run, another group takes shelter in the house. Rick kills one of the men and runs out of the house. Taking Carl and Michonne, they head towards a place called Terminus. While on the way to Terminus, they are attacked by the group in the house, The leader, Joe, accuses Rick of killing one of his members. When they threaten to kill Carl, Rick kills Joe by ripping out Joe's throat with his mouth. He then kills everyone in Joe's group.
Rick and his group continue following the train tracks until they reach Terminus. When they reach Terminus, Rick and his party are offered shelter and food. Then Rick becomes suspicious when he sees that the people of Terminus have his friends' things. Rick takes a hostage and his party attempts to escape Terminus. The people of Terminus then corner Rick and force them give up their weapons. Then Rick and his party are herded into a container where he is reunited with the rest of the prison group. Rick then declares that he will strike back at the people of Terminus.
Personality and Traits[]
Rick has been described as a man virtue because he has always tried to keep this moral principals even when they are inconvenient. Though, Rick will always put the protection of his loved ones over everything. Rick highly protective of those his group and is willing to kill to protect these people. Rick has also displayed excellent leadership skills as well as combat skills. These traits have helped him gain the respect of his peers and bolstered his position his their leader. Rick's Achilles heel is that he assumes too much responsibility to a point where he would shut others out.Like others, Rick has changed because of the zombie outbreak. At first, he was very conscientious man who hesitated to kill a man. However, as weeks went on by, Rick began to grew colder. He still maintained his moral principals but he is more willing to bend them if the situation requires it. In addition, Rick had become mentally unstable as he lived life running away from the walkers in search of a safe home for his family. His instability became more pronounced after his wife had died. This moment of mental instability along with grief had paralyzed Rick in his duties as his group's leader. It was only after Rick had been reminded of the danger that the Governor posed that Rick came back to his senses and resumed command of his group.